This invention relates generally to the field of water sports and more specifically to swim goggles with periscope for viewing landmarks above the water line ahead of the swimmer.
Open-water swimmers using the free style swim stroke are face-down in the water and must necessarily raise their head out of the water periodically to sight a distant object to swim toward. A swimmer who does not do this frequently enough will quickly diverge from a straight-line path. For a free style swimmer, lifting one's head from the water causes the body to tilt from the preferred attitude of level swimming to an inclined position with head out of the water and legs sinking down. This immediately causes a loss of momentum by the increased frontal area of the swimmer and, in addition, during this interim, the swimmer is no longer performing the arm strokes and leg kicks that would continue to propel the body forward. Given the apparatus to allow the swimmer to continually see the target path for swimming without raising the head allows for the fastest swim by always progressing along a straight path without the interruption of raising the head to look forward and the resultant deceleration. This would be very beneficial to all swimmers in open water primarily triathletes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,170,190 Water Sportsman's Face Mask For Viewing Objects Above and Below the Line of Vision describes a set of prisms built into the front of a swimming mask which reflect light from above or below the swimming mask into the swimmer's eyes. As the image is only from directly above or directly below the frontal plane of the mask, it would be without merit for seeing above the waterline into the distance.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,909,959 Swimming Face Mask with Periscope illustrates a swimming mask with a large boxlike portion extending from the top of the mask over the swimmer's head. Mirrors in the top and bottom of the periscope bring the image in front of the swimmer into the field of view of the wearer. Due to its large frontal area, this device would be inappropriate for competitive swimmers due to the significant drag effects.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,006,367 Swimming Goggles relates a prism built into the top of swimming goggles that bends the light that is above the plane of the goggles down into the swimmer's view of vision. This arrangement allows the swimmer to see directly in front when swimming in the face-down position of the free style stroke, although the forward view is below the surface of the water. In open water, i.e. lakes or oceans, the viewing distance would be quite limited and of no value for geographical orientation in the water.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,963 Replacement Device for a Driver's Viewer demonstrates an elaborate system that redirects a desired visual field into eyewear for motorists, but it doesn't lend itself to a light simple design for swimmers' needs.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,713 Imaging Target Sight describes an optical system employing lensing and fiber optics to bring the image of the gunner's target to the gunner's eye for aiming missiles.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,871 Multi-Function Display Apparatus describes swimming goggles with optical coupling of a remote transmitter of displayed data to the front portion of the goggles for viewing by the wearer.
Prior technology does not adequately provide for the presentation of the forward field of view above the water line for a prone, face-down swimmer. Inadequacies include excessive or bulky parts, vision only below the water line, or views other than frontal.